posted at 6:00 pm on May 20, 2010 by Allahpundit

Tapper broke the news and now the AP confirms it. I assume the trigger was that Senate report that came out a few days ago finding 14 separate intelligence failures in Abdulmutallab’s attack, but the White House actually took very little heat for that in the media. Everyone’s been busy with the elections and the oil spill and Rand Paul fee-vah. The problem must run deeper and, per Tapper, it does.

For several weeks President Obama has been holding serious conversations about whether to ask Blair to step down and has interviewed candidates to replace him. After a discussion this afternoon between the president and Blair in the Oval Office about the best way forward, Blair offered to resign and the president said he would accept, sources told ABC News.

On the heels of a number of intelligence failures involving the Fort Hood shooter, failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouq Abdulmuttalab, and questions about failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, it was no longer clear that Blair — tasked with coordinating the 16 intelligence agencies and ensuring that they cooperate and share information – still had the full and complete confidence of the president, sources say.

The news will not come as a surprise to those in the intelligence community. For months, Blair has turf battles while the White House made it clear that it had more confidence in others, such as counterterrorism and homeland security adviser John Brennan, taking the lead both publicly and privately.

Follow the link for some of Blair’s lowlights, the very worst of which was this. We were writing about turf battles between him and Panetta as far back as last June, not six months into Obama’s administration, but Blair’s liabilities to the White House started even before that. Remember this inconvenient, long forgotten bombshell that he dropped in April 2009?

President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday…

Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Advice to The One: Find a replacement who can stick to the Narrative. Exit question: Shouldn’t Obama consider a Republican as Blair’s successor? The left will scream because that’s what the left does (“he thinks we can’t be trusted to fight terror!”) but it’d actually be a shrewd move politically. The next time the system fails somehow, there’s a convenient scapegoat from the other party in place to take most of the heat. Which, needless to say, will complicate the GOP’s message on Democrats being weak on terror this fall. Obama’s got a track record too of squeezing political gain out of his appointments. Remember how he knocked Jon Huntsman out of the national conversation by making him ambassador to China?

Update: An interesting update from Tapper: “One official tells ABC News that President Obama sought Blair’s resignation earlier this week, but Blair pushed back, hoping to convince the president to change his mind.” More:

This was, the official said, the result of long pent-up dissatisfaction with Blair as the principal intelligence adviser to the president, responsible for briefing the president every day and briefing the National Security Staff. In short, officials didn’t think the briefings were relevant to what the president was focused on that day or time period. They weren’t crisp or well-presented.

At other times, Blair didn’t seem to take “no” for an answer, the official said. He was pushing an initiative dealing with intelligence and other countries, and he kept pushing it even after President Obama turned it down.

They must be exceedingly unhappy with him to be dumping on him like this.

The U.S. official said that the White House has interviewed “several strong candidates.” Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, the chairman of the president’s intelligence advisory board, and Gen. James Clapper (Ret.), the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, are seen by other intelligence officials as top candidates. Clapper will face a tough confirmation, and his career profile is similar to Blair’s. Hagel would be feared by the military intelligence establishment, but he gets along with CIA director Leon Panetta, who will not be leaving his job.

Blowback

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The United States has agreed to notify other nations before it launches most ballistic missile tests or satellites, in a measure that builds on a landmark arms agreement with Russia and is meant to encourage Moscow to reciprocate.

Yes, by all means choose someone who can be a future political scapegoat rather than the most qualified person available. Ok so innocent citizens may get blown to bits in an American city somewhere, as long as PBHO is protected from the PR fallout it’s all cool.

President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

WoW!
These terrorists were trained to endure every torture technique EXCEPT KINDNESS AND SUBSERVIENCE!HOW AWESOME!!!!!

Shouldn’t Obama consider a Republican as Blair’s successor? …it’d actually be a shrewd move politically. The next time the system fails somehow, there’s a convenient scapegoat from the other party in place to take most of the heat. Which, needless to say, will complicate the GOP’s message on Democrats being weak on terror this fall.

Exit question: Shouldn’t Obama consider a Republican as Blair’s successor? The left will scream because that’s what the left does (“he thinks we can’t be trusted to fight terror!”) but it’d actually be a shrewd move politically.

What Republican in his/her right mind would accept such a position, considering they would be held up by Panetta puppet strings dangling in front of every bus that has a brake failure???

All Rand Paul.
Funny you should say that. I just made one of my increasingly infrequent visits to LGF and that is the topic of almost all of his recent posts. Sad how that place has become so irrelevant.

Shouldn’t Obama consider a Republican as Blair’s successor? The left will scream because that’s what the left does (“he thinks we can’t be trusted to fight terror!”) but it’d actually be a shrewd move politically. The next time the system fails somehow, there’s a convenient scapegoat from the other party in place to take most of the heat. Which, needless to say, will complicate the GOP’s message on Democrats being weak on terror this fall. Obama’s got a track record too of squeezing political gain out of his appointments. Remember how he knocked Jon Huntsman out of the national conversation by making him ambassador to China?

Fortunately no one at the White House reads this blog.

It’s comforting to know that even those on our side are standing ready and willing to give Barry and company free advice on how best to dick us, and by extension the country, over.

Israel is in trouble with Hagel at the intel helm, Hagel supports the idea that all mid east conflagarations stem from the presence of the state of Israel. Consequently the caliber of our intel exchanges with Mossad & Shin Bet will suffer incalcuably. As our ability to penetrate orgs in the semetic world have been disasterously lacking, ergo other than the Jordanians(also world class intel agency)we will be blind to events in that corner ot the world.

The miserable political hack and intellectual pigmy Holder is responsible for undermining the American Intelligence community. The scumbag Justice Department is a pigsty which must be cleaned up! There is simply no end to the fundamental criminality of the Holder Justice Department!

Question that will be on the application to fill the newly-vacated position of National Security Director:

When faced with an immediate threat of a terror attack man-caused emergency, and knowing the location of the suspected terrorist alleged victim of U.S. aggression, the United States of America should:

a)Do everything possible to ensure that the civil rights of the subject are protected, at all costs,including the recitation of Miranda Rights, regardless of the immigration status of subject.
b)Appoint a Justice Department representative to act on behalf of the subject, and provide the representative 20 minutes of private consultation with the subject, PRIOR to interrogating gently questioning what evil act of the US prompted subject to perpetrate such action.
c)Provide subject with ice cream, cake, a binky and offer of a nap prior to any further harrassment.
d)All of the above.

Let’s not be too quick to malign Blair. As noted on Special Report tonight (esp by Dr Krauthammer), Blair was at war with Dear Leader’s insiders. His resignation letter contains none of the usual flowery accolades to Dear Leader. It could be interesting when Mr. Blair becomes a private citizen.

Let’s not be too quick to malign Blair. As noted on Special Report tonight (esp by Dr Krauthammer), Blair was at war with Dear Leader’s insiders. His resignation letter contains none of the usual flowery accolades to Dear Leader. It could be interesting when Mr. Blair becomes a private citizen.

….You can bet we will be hearing from Blair in the near future and it won’t be to cheerlead for Obama.
….Blair basically came out and said that our Intelligence community was being heavily politicized by the Obama administration.
…this is in line with Obama appointing political mouth pieces instead of policy experts in many positions of authority.
…It’s all about covering for Obama and nothing about actually doing what is right for the country.

They are all about trying to intimidate even their mildest critics. That is priority number one, not governing or providing security for the nation.

Aren’t we overdue for the next important administration policy statement regarding the security threat posed by Rush Limbaugh, “Joe the Plumber”, Jim Cramer, or some old lady from Oshkosh, Wisconsin who doesn’t like Obamacare?

You’ve got complete asses like Napolitano and Holder making policy decisions regarding national security. Decisions that have been demonstrably counter-productive.

So….lets dump Blair. The only guy in this crappy administration with the temerity to tell at least some of the truth about what is going on.

Blair was on borrowed time ever since the interrogation memo. The truth hurts this creep we have as President.

Obama was just biding his time waiting for the right moment to dump him, which turned out to be now. Not only are they rid of Blair, but it has the added benefit of making him a convenient fall guy, and introducing the “see, we’re not afraid to make a change” meme. A meme that their myriad sycophants in the media will be all to happy to scoop up and run with.

Whew! Thank Heavens we got rid of Blair. Don’t you all feel more confident about the security of our nation, now?

This was, the official said, the result of long pent-up dissatisfaction with Blair as the principal intelligence adviser to the president, responsible for briefing the president every day and briefing the National Security Staff. In short, officials didn’t think the briefings were relevant to what the president was focused on that day or time period. They weren’t crisp or well-presented.

At other times, Blair didn’t seem to take “no” for an answer, the official said. He was pushing an initiative dealing with intelligence and other countries, and he kept pushing it even after President Obama turned it down

Quite frankly, the pee-resident is NOT focused on national security that day or any day. ObaMao does NOT ascribe to the idea that we have enemies coming from Islamism.

Brennan, Napolitano, Holder, and ObaMao are the problems in securing our nation. Any sucker who disputes their legalistic mindset in dealing with hostile forces is toast. It is better for a person of national security conviction and a sense of responsibility NOT to take this position because he would only be a scapegoat. The O-administration is NOT known for taking responsibility for any decisions or actions.

Out because the Administration tried to make Admiral Blair buy into things that his military training told him were not not good for the country.

He is resigning because he does not trust the Administration and the Administration is not to be trusted. The evidence is in the their most recent actions in not protecting our boarders from the onslaught of illegals from Mexico and inaction in protecting us from Mother Nature.